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In your opinion,is it better to work for a small shop(2-5)people or a large national shop(whole hell of a lot of people)And what would the advantages be of either one.Just wondering what you guys think. THanks.

How much time have you got? How necessary is this to you to be answered?

How low do you wana go?

What are you doing right now?

What are you career goals, short and long term?

How much time do yo have in the trade?

I worked for a small shop, as you described. The owner's son just started cause he was laid off from his job. And he had no trade experience. He was not mechanicaly inclined. He had no people skills, save for bossing em around when his Dad wasnt lookin'.
He made work impossible.
He lied behind people's backs. And to their face. In fact, he lied everywhere he set foot.

And his Dad, an ex Husman man .... a real experienced trade savy guy .... sucked up to his boy cause he felt sorry for the "guy" ....

And your question; "whats it like working for a small shop?" It was like this: you got up every day and did whatever needed to be done to accomplish whatever had to be accomplished!!! Period!
The pay was adequate but not up to industry standards. There simply were no benefits. The vehicles were in a state of caos. You fixed your own as you drove.

Heck, when he hired me, my first call was handled out of my car. Then when I showed up to get a truck, it had no gas card. So for days I just paid out of pocket to buy gasoline. No problem. I knew this guy wouldnt hassle me for the money.
When I aproached him, he handed me a gas card.

I needed a couple of tools. He told me to buy them on his open account at the parts house. Whatever I wanted, within reason, of course. He was willing to do payroll deductions each week until paid off.

First time I was out after dark, the headlights blew the fuse. So I replaced it with the radio fuse. It blew. So I installed a resettable circuit breaker.
Of course I traced things out for shorts and all, but here I am, fielding calls and having to deal with stuff like this. All because there was no regular mechanic to take the rig into and no spare vehilces.
And the man before me simply didnt give a rip.

Normally you get uniforms before or shortly after you begin a new job. Provided of course, you are hired on with a legitimate company and not some group of hacks.

So I'm there days now without uniforms. I come in one day and here is a stack of shirts. I look at the name tag and it's the guy who last left there.
So I try on a shirt and viola, it fits me.

So I am entering parts houses, where they know me, and jobsites where they dont .... all wearing the shirts with the nametag "Juan".....

Depending upon the owner of the small outfit ... he may be helpful or not much help at all. It all depends on how he runs things.

You may have to do a lot more thinking about how things outght to be done ... working for a small outift. Whereas a large company has already figured out hwo want most things done.

I worked for a large company. Not national, but large. I wanted inventory ideas. They had none.
I wanted to know what I should be stocking, so I would not be thought of as a spendthrift with their accounts. They had no clue what I should and should not be stocking.
THAT alone has many stories to it.
So I ended up outlining a method of discovering their personal inventory needs for every single department in the company. And they had many many departments. Lots of inventory. No control whatsoever!!!
And little ol me came up with a plan to figure it all out.

I even designed a means of switching vans with inventory stock and tools all at once. No having to spend several hours unloading and then reloading into the department's spare van.
All that down time and confusion and loss of productivity.
And I submitted both of these ideas to management.
My service manager wanted nothing to do with either me or any new ideas.
He felt challenged by new things.

But they had all the benefits you could ever imagine.

People are fickle. (fickled?)(what everrrrrr)

You cannot depend on folks when they are worried about their jobs or their family or stuff like that.
There is little loyalty these days. In any profession. You just go out there each and every day and hope your doing the best for those you are in service to.
Cause if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, even just one time ... yo could easily lose it all. You could easily become unemployed and on your way to the bench!!!

Anyone says we are the masters of our own destiny is full of themselves!!!
We can influence others in a positive or a negative way. But we cannot make them do what they do not wish to do.
It has to be their idea to provide you with resources to perfrom your duties in an effecient maner.
It has to be their idea to provide you with support.
It has to be their idea to get the best insurance for your family.
It has to be their idea to get you the training you need to work on theri customer's equipment.

So no matter if you work for a large company with hundreds of employees, like one that I spoke of. Or you work for a shop with just a handful of guys, like I began my rant with.
In the end... it is no different. It it up to someone else. Your responsibility is to do your best and trust God for the rest.

Originally posted by R12rules How much time have you got? How necessary is this to you to be answered?

How low do you wana go?

What are you doing right now?

What are you career goals, short and long term?

How much time do yo have in the trade?

I worked for a small shop, as you described. The owner's son just started cause he was laid off from his job. And he had no trade experience. He was not mechanicaly inclined. He had no people skills, save for bossing em around when his Dad wasnt lookin'.
He made work impossible.
He lied behind people's backs. And to their face. In fact, he lied everywhere he set foot.

And his Dad, an ex Husman man .... a real experienced trade savy guy .... sucked up to his boy cause he felt sorry for the "guy" ....

And your question; "whats it like working for a small shop?" It was like this: you got up every day and did whatever needed to be done to accomplish whatever had to be accomplished!!! Period!
The pay was adequate but not up to industry standards. There simply were no benefits. The vehicles were in a state of caos. You fixed your own as you drove.

Heck, when he hired me, my first call was handled out of my car. Then when I showed up to get a truck, it had no gas card. So for days I just paid out of pocket to buy gasoline. No problem. I knew this guy wouldnt hassle me for the money.
When I aproached him, he handed me a gas card.

I needed a couple of tools. He told me to buy them on his open account at the parts house. Whatever I wanted, within reason, of course. He was willing to do payroll deductions each week until paid off.

First time I was out after dark, the headlights blew the fuse. So I replaced it with the radio fuse. It blew. So I installed a resettable circuit breaker.
Of course I traced things out for shorts and all, but here I am, fielding calls and having to deal with stuff like this. All because there was no regular mechanic to take the rig into and no spare vehilces.
And the man before me simply didnt give a rip.

Normally you get uniforms before or shortly after you begin a new job. Provided of course, you are hired on with a legitimate company and not some group of hacks.

So I'm there days now without uniforms. I come in one day and here is a stack of shirts. I look at the name tag and it's the guy who last left there.
So I try on a shirt and viola, it fits me.

So I am entering parts houses, where they know me, and jobsites where they dont .... all wearing the shirts with the nametag "Juan".....

Depending upon the owner of the small outfit ... he may be helpful or not much help at all. It all depends on how he runs things.

You may have to do a lot more thinking about how things outght to be done ... working for a small outift. Whereas a large company has already figured out hwo want most things done.

I worked for a large company. Not national, but large. I wanted inventory ideas. They had none.
I wanted to know what I should be stocking, so I would not be thought of as a spendthrift with their accounts. They had no clue what I should and should not be stocking.
THAT alone has many stories to it.
So I ended up outlining a method of discovering their personal inventory needs for every single department in the company. And they had many many departments. Lots of inventory. No control whatsoever!!!
And little ol me came up with a plan to figure it all out.

I even designed a means of switching vans with inventory stock and tools all at once. No having to spend several hours unloading and then reloading into the department's spare van.
All that down time and confusion and loss of productivity.
And I submitted both of these ideas to management.
My service manager wanted nothing to do with either me or any new ideas.
He felt challenged by new things.

But they had all the benefits you could ever imagine.

People are fickle. (fickled?)(what everrrrrr)

You cannot depend on folks when they are worried about their jobs or their family or stuff like that.
There is little loyalty these days. In any profession. You just go out there each and every day and hope your doing the best for those you are in service to.
Cause if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, even just one time ... yo could easily lose it all. You could easily become unemployed and on your way to the bench!!!

Anyone says we are the masters of our own destiny is full of themselves!!!
We can influence others in a positive or a negative way. But we cannot make them do what they do not wish to do.
It has to be their idea to provide you with resources to perfrom your duties in an effecient maner.
It has to be their idea to provide you with support.
It has to be their idea to get the best insurance for your family.
It has to be their idea to get you the training you need to work on theri customer's equipment.

So no matter if you work for a large company with hundreds of employees, like one that I spoke of. Or you work for a shop with just a handful of guys, like I began my rant with.
In the end... it is no different. It it up to someone else. Your responsibility is to do your best and trust God for the rest.

I worked for a small family owned resi company (<60 employees). Life was good. Pay rocked (keeping up with the unions). Had good bennies, hard work was recognised, I had shirts with my name on them. :-) Then we got consolidated and I left... the raises ended, they raped our profit sharing, tried to turn us into sellers instead if fixers. I'm back with a small company now, pay rocks, insurance is OK (not fantastic), 401K is good, effort is recognised, my van is newer and in good shape for a 2002, the owner shook my hand as I was leaving the company holiday party and thanked me for working for him... I never had that happen before and I look forward even more to going to work. Small companies are where it's at for me.

Small shop. I hated large shop politics and back stabbing. You shall see.

Now the freaks are on television, the freaks are in the movies. And its no longer the sideshow, its the whole show. The colorful circus and the clowns and the elephants, for all intents and purposes, are gone, and were dealing only with the freaks. - Jonathan Winters

I'm young enough I haven't got the experiences many have had (maybe thats good?). I work for what I would consider a large company, large in my area anyway. Plenty of good things, plenty of bad things aswell.

Personally I think either one can be good, or can be your worst nightmare. If it's run properly and things are done right, it doesn't matter if it's a big company or a small one, you'll be happy there.